Teleconferencing is an essential and indispensable part of today's business world. It is a very cost effective alternative to face-to-face meetings and allows for bringing together people regardless of location to exchange ideas in real time and in an interactive manner. A teleconference may be defined as a live exchange and mass articulation of information among two or more people who are remote from one another, but linked by a telecommunication system. Other terms that are sometimes used include audio conferencing, telephone conferencing, and phone conferencing.
Various telecommunication systems may be used for teleconferencing. Some examples include telephone systems, voice over internet protocol (VoIP) systems, and other like systems. Teleconferencing may include video conferencing, audio streaming, and other types of interactive exchanges that include an audio component.
During a typical teleconference, a calling party wishes to have voice interactions with one or more other parties. A calling party may be a single participant or a group of participants gathered in the same location. Such a group usually uses one teleconferencing device (e.g., a speakerphone) to communicate with other participants and/or groups in other locations. Multiple participants in the same group can generally talk and hear each other directly by virtue of being in the same location. However, when multiple participants of the same group talk at the same time, the quality of a signal captured by a microphone on a teleconferencing device may be poor. Furthermore, some participants may be closer to the teleconferencing device than others, which may cause additional quality issues.